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 Table of Contents  
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2014  |  Volume : 3  |  Issue : 1  |  Page : 9-13

Comparison of static and dynamic balance among collegiate cricket, soccer and volleyball male players


1 Department of Musculoskeletal and Sports Physiotherapy, C. U. Shah Physiotherapy College, Surendranagar, Gujarat, India
2 Department of Neurological Physiotherapy, FITKIDS Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
3 Department of Neurological Physiotherapy, C. U. Shah Physiotherapy College, Surendranagar, Gujarat, India

Date of Web Publication15-Apr-2014

Correspondence Address:
P Ratan Khuman
Department of Musculoskeletal and Sports Physiotherapy, C. U. Shah Physiotherapy College, Surendranagar, Gujarat
India
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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/2278-344X.130599

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  Abstract 

Background: Athletes from different sports requires balance control for their better performance depending on game type they involved. When prescribing balance exercises to athletes in different sports, it may be important to recognize performance variations. Objective: The objective of the present study was to compare the static and dynamic balance among collegiate cricket, soccer and volleyball male players. Materials and Methods: A total of 150 students, college level male players from five different colleges were requited for the study with purposive sampling. They were assigned into three different groups according to their types of sports, cricket n = 50, soccer n = 50, volleyball n = 50. The static and dynamic balance was assessed using flamingo balance test (FBT) and star excursion balance test (SEBT) in institutional based sports physiotherapy department. Results: Intra-group comparison for FBT and SEBT score shows no significance difference (P > 0.05). Multiple comparison of FBT and SEBT score between groups reveals significantly difference between cricket and soccer player (P = 0.000), between cricket and volleyball player (P = 0.000) and between soccer player and volleyball players (P = 0.000). FBT and SEBT score were significantly higher in soccer players than volleyball and cricketer were found to have the least score compared with soccer and volleyball players. Conclusion: There is significance difference in static and dynamic balance among collegiate cricket, soccer and volleyball male players. The soccer players demonstrate higher balance than volleyball players and the volleyball players have a higher balance than that of cricketers both statically and dynamically.

Keywords: Balance, cricket, proprioception, soccer, volleyball


How to cite this article:
Khuman P R, Kamlesh T, Surbala L. Comparison of static and dynamic balance among collegiate cricket, soccer and volleyball male players. Int J Health Allied Sci 2014;3:9-13

How to cite this URL:
Khuman P R, Kamlesh T, Surbala L. Comparison of static and dynamic balance among collegiate cricket, soccer and volleyball male players. Int J Health Allied Sci [serial online] 2014 [cited 2024 Mar 29];3:9-13. Available from: https://www.ijhas.in/text.asp?2014/3/1/9/130599


  Introduction Top


Balance is defined as the ability to maintain a stable posture with body mass center in the domain of base of support while counteracting external or internal conflicts. [1] Balance may be static when the body is either at rest (static balance) or dynamic when the body is in steady-state motion (dynamic balance). Human balance depends on co-ordinated integration of somato-sensory, vestibular and visual input. [2],[3]

Assessment of postural control is an important measure in the pediatric, geriatric and athletic populations for establishing levels of balance and neuromuscular co-ordination for the purposes of injury prevention and rehabilitation. Numerous tests have been developed to assess dynamic postural control in pediatric [4],[5] and geriatric [6],[7] populations. However, the space and cost requirements associated with balance measuring devices are not affordable or feasible for many clinical setting or during on-field assessments. The Flamingo balance test (FBT) is a full body balance test that achieves the requirements with low cost and capable for mass investigations. [1],[8] The star excursion balance test (SEBT) is another test that challenge an athlete's dynamic postural control system. [9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14]

The environmental demands and skill requirement in different sports likely induces different challenges to the sensory-motor systems that cumulatively might have influenced the abilities of balance in trained athletes. Thus, balance testing becomes imperative to detect these features of how the athletes from different sports perform in balance test. [9] Soccer players often perform shooting, lower extremity passing and dribbling skills wearing cleated or non-cleated shoes on variable field conditions, [15] which requires a high level neuromuscular co-ordination, body awareness, agility [16] and dynamic balance. [9],[17] Volleyball players also exposes to a variety of movements such as speeding jumps and leaps, forearm pass, overhead pass, spike, block, dig, dink and serve. [18] A good balance is essential to make a pass, after an attack or block and return to the floor. [19] On the other hand, cricket is played with three skills; betting, fielding and bowling, which requires a good focus, postural control, strength, muscular endurance, explosive bursts and fitness. [16]

With this insight of balance testing in the above three different sports, physiotherapist, athletic and fitness trainers may prescribe balance exercises further effectively to prevent injuries and improve performance. Studies comparing balance ability among athletes competing in different sports are limited. Hence the purpose of this study was to compare static and dynamic balance among collegiate cricket, soccer and volleyball male players. The study hypothesized that postural balance control would be dissimilar among players in these sports.


  Materials and Methods Top


A total of 242 male players of cricket, soccer and volleyball from five different colleges were screened with the selection criteria. No physical test was carried out during the screening process. With purposive sampling design, 150 student players (cricket n = 50, soccer n = 50, volleyball n = 50) who fulfills the inclusion criteria were selected for the study [Figure 1]. The included subjects were male athletes; age 18-25 years, competing in only one sport from last 1 year, not involved in balance training program outside their typical sport training, represented college in inter-collegiate level events. The excluded subjects were those with the history of lower extremity fracture, ligament and musculo-tendinous injury in last 6 months, vestibular and visual problems except with refractory errors, head injury or concussion in last 6 month. The study was approved by the Institutional Medical Ethical Committee. All the players provided their demographic details [Table 1] and written informed consent after the purpose and procedure of the study were explained.
Figure 1: Sampling flow chart

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Table 1: Demographic details


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Procedure

Static balance was measured by FBT. Here, the subjects stood on the beam (50 cm long, 5 cm high and 3 cm wide), balancing on one leg in bare foot, the free leg was flexed at the knee and foot held close to the buttocks and hands on the iliac crests, standing like a flamingo [Figure 2]. The tester started the stopwatch and the subjects tried to stand in this position for 1 min. The stopwatch was stopped each time the subjects lost the balance and started again until they lost the balance. Every player performed three attempts with eye-open in each leg, the number of falls was recorded and they were averaged for analysis. [1],[8]
Figure 2: Flamingo balance test

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The SEBT was used for the assessment of dynamic balance. This test was performed with the subjects standing at the center of a grid marked on the floor; with 8 lines (120 cm) extending at 45° increments from the center of the grid and the distance they reached was recorded in centimeters [Figure 3]. Before testing, participants were given 3 min to familiarize themselves with SEBT grids. They were also given a 5 sec rest in a 2-footed stance between each reach attempts and 2 min of rest between the trials. The single tester recorded reach distance for each direction of SEBT grid in both legs and were averaged over three trials. Each reach distances were normalized to leg length (reach distance/leg length × 100 = % of leg length) and were summed for both dominant and non-dominant leg to reduce the number of statistical tests. [1],[10]
Figure 3: Star excursion balance test

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Statistical analysis

Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 16.0 for windows software. Normality distribution of data were verified using Shapiro Wilk test. For normally distributed data (always present) dependent t-test was used to compare the difference between the dominant and non-dominant limb FBT and SEBT scores. One-way analysis of variance was performed to assess the significant differences in FBT and SEBT scores among the groups. The level of significance was set at 95% (P = 0.05) for all observation.


  Results Top


The groups were homogenous in their demographic details, with P > 0.05 [Table 1]. There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between dominant and non-dominant FBT and SEBT scores [Table 2] among the players. FBT scores were significantly different between cricket and soccer players (P = 0.000), between cricket and volleyball players (P = 0.000) and soccer and volleyball players (P = 0.002) [Table 3]. The FBT score were significantly higher in soccer player (6.05 ± 1.38) than that of volleyball (6.97 ± 1.17) and cricket players (8.48 ± 1.38). Cricket player were found to have the least FBT scores compared with soccer and volleyball players. SEBT scores were significantly different between cricket and soccer players (P = 0.000), between cricket and volleyball players (P = 0.000) and between soccer and volleyball players (P = 0.000) [Table 3]. The SEBT scores were significantly higher in soccer players (1440.17 ± 49.48) than that of volleyball (1253.93 ± 43.70) and cricket players (1199.18 ± 59.70). Cricket players were found to have the least SEBT score compared with that of soccer and volleyball players.
Table 2: Intra-group comparison of FBT and SEBT scores


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Table 3: Inter-group comparison of FBT and SEBT scores


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  Discussion Top


Studies on balance in sports have revealed that sport participation improves balance. [20],[21] The finding of this study revealed that there was no significant static and dynamic balance difference in leg dominancy. The soccer players were found to have a superior static and dynamic balance than cricket and volleyball players. The result of this study was in accordance with previous studies. [8],[9]

The specific sensorimotor system changes that resulted from sport participation are multifaceted. Evidence suggests that the improvement in joint proprioception after skill training [22] and learning to pay attention to biomechanical cues (e.g., joint acceleration) may be one of the mechanisms for this change. [23] Sports training improves neuromuscular coordination, range of motion (ROM) and joint strength, are also likely mechanisms that lead to improved balance. Ground reaction force of soccer players and volleyball players for some skill maneuvers may be greater compared with cricket players. [24] Hence, balance scores difference among players in this study may be due to differences in joint strength. Soccer is an invasive [16] game wherein the players requires more of dynamic balance in order to change direction at speed while running with the ball to avoid being tackled by the opposition. Volleyball player must make rapid changes of direction constantly throughout the game to hit the ball. Volleyball required high muscular endurance in both upper and lower body, as the player has to make high intensity intermittent sprints throughout the game. There is requirement of good dynamic balance [18] during the sequence of passing, setting, spiking and blocking in volleyball. Although such an action is less seen in cricket, more action such as running between wicket and hand eye coordination is required during fielding and batting. A batsman requires a good balance to play shots; poor balance may lead to loss in power that might cause an out. [16] However motor control and biomechanics of batting along with fitness are poorly understood in cricket and more research are suggested. [25] The above factors justify the reason for the significant difference in the static and dynamic balance the three different sports players where soccer players have superior static and dynamic balance among than volleyball and cricket players. It also supports the contention that player in different sports experienced fewer ankle sprain and other musculoskeletal injuries than control subjects, although there is no direct evidence. [26]

The finding of this study would benefit sports physiotherapist, athletic and fitness trainers from quantifying balance requirements among players and also help in prescribing balance training programs to reduce musculoskeletal injuries and improving performance for different players. The inferior static and dynamic balance score among cricket, volleyball players may be a strong predictor of future ankle sprains. Soccer players would also benefit from balance training but balance exercise may be more necessary for cricket and volleyball players. [9],[11]

Information regarding the frequency of training and participation in competitive events were not recorded in this study, which may have an impact on the balance ability in this study groups. Despite the advantage of FBT and SEBT for balance assessment, it may be considered a limitation of this study because they could not quantify postural sway. Force platform [27] and more sophisticated techniques, such as Dynamic Postural Control Index [28] and the time-to-stabilization test [29] are available for measuring postural sway in static and dynamic balance. The specific components of balance (e.g., proprioception, vision, joint ROM and strength) were also not examined in this study. Future research can be performed on elite players participating in different sports with quantification of postural sway and examining specific component of balance. In addition, this study may be useful to sports physiotherapist and athletic trainers who can use these tests on athletes of different sports to help them in the accurate prescription of balance exercises.


  Conclusion Top


Based on the above the study may be concluded that there is significant difference in static and dynamic balance between three different sports players of soccer, cricket and volleyball. The soccer players demonstrate higher balance compared with volleyball players and volleyball players have higher balance than that of cricketers both statically and dynamically.

 
  References Top

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18.Siedentop D, Hastie PA, Van der Mars H. Complete Guide to Sport Education. 2 nd ed. USA: Human Kinetics; 2011.  Back to cited text no. 18
    
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20.Aydin T, Yildiz Y, Yildiz C, Atesalp S, Kalyon TA. Proprioception of the ankle: A comparison between female teenaged gymnasts and controls. Foot Ankle Int 2002;23:123-9.  Back to cited text no. 20
    
21.Lephart SM, Giraldo JL, Borsa PA, Fu FH. Knee joint proprioception: A comparison between female intercollegiate gymnasts and controls. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 1996;4:121-4.  Back to cited text no. 21
    
22.Muaidi QI, Nicholson LL, Refshauge KM. Do elite athletes exhibit enhanced proprioceptive acuity, range and strength of knee rotation compared with non-athletes? Scand J Med Sci Sports 2009;19:103-12.  Back to cited text no. 22
    
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26.Caraffa A, Cerulli G, Projetti M, Aisa G, Rizzo A. Prevention of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in soccer. A prospective controlled study of proprioceptive training. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 1996;4:19-21.  Back to cited text no. 26
    
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29.Ross SE, Guskiewicz KM. Time to stabilization: a method for analysing dynamic postural stability. Athl Ther Today 2003;8:37-9.  Back to cited text no. 29
    


    Figures

  [Figure 1], [Figure 2], [Figure 3]
 
 
    Tables

  [Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3]


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